“bow-wow, pooh-pooh, ding-dong”
(the title comes from shorthand names for five basic
theories of the origin of human language, the other two
being “la-la” and “yo-he-ho”) is a
large installation through which the audience can walk at
will.
The viewer enters a large , rather featureless space
measuring about 15 by 18 metres and 5 metres high. The
walls are white and the floor is polished wood.

The first part of the room is empty, but the rest is
occupied by 25 tall, thin, white, square columns arranged
in a grid. Each column is 2 metres tall and 30cm square,
about 30 cm from the top, the front face has a small
loudspeaker mounted flush with the surface.
They are all emitting noises intermittently, the sounds
being repeated at intervals ranging from 20secs to 6
minutes. Individually the noises are not loud, so moving
around in the room allows a different combination of sounds
to be heard.
The columns are lit by a single flood light mounted on the
ceiling at the front of the room, the first row is quite
brightly lit, but the space becomes dimmer and more shadowy
as you move deeper in.
The sounds themselves are edited fragments of computer
speech, a variety of accents and voice characteristics can
be picked out, but no understandable language or words
emerge.
Wandering through the room one gains the impression that
some kind of communication is being attempted, though no
meaningful sense can be made of the combinations of
primitive phonemes.